ELVIS Star Austin Butler for GQ HYPE

“Elvis” Star Austin Butler covers the latest issue of GQ Hype magazine photographed by Eric Ray Davidson and styled by Jamie Taylor.

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The young actor made a pilgrimage to Graceland and met Elvis’s ex-wife, Priscilla Presley, who embraced him and told him he had a lot of support. “She looked like an angel,” Butler says. “I walked down the hall with Baz [Luhrmann] afterwards with tears in my eyes.” Beyond all the technical preparation, he sought out other things that would allow him to access this larger-than-life figure on a personal level. “His mother passed away when he was 23, and my mom passed away when I was 23,” Butler says. “So when I learned that, it was one of those things where I got chills, and I just thought, Okay, I can connect to that.”

The first performance scene that Butler had to film was Elvis’s big 1968 comeback special, which, appropriately enough, had a ton of pressure riding on it. Despite his nerves, Butler maintained that unrelenting positivity. “Look, I’ve worked with every kind of actor and every kind of performer. And I accept that they have freak-outs, that’s okay,” Luhrmann told me. “But Austin, he doesn’t freak out. He has the most polite panic of anyone I’ve ever met.”

Style Credits:
Cover: Jacket by Alexander McQueen | Shirt by Fursac
Image 1: Jacket, Shirt and Pants by Gucci | Belt by Artemas Quibble | Boots, his own, by Lucchese | Necklace by Cartier
Image 2: Jacket by Alexander McQueen | Shirt by Fursac | Pants by Alexander McQueen | Shoes by Dior Homme | Socks by Falke | Watch, Bracelet, and Ring by Cartier

Photographs by Eric Ray Davidson
Styled by Jon Tietz
Grooming by Jamie Taylor 

[Photo Credit: Eric Ray Davidson/GQ Magazine]

• Alexander McQueen
• Artemas Quibble
• Austin Butler
• Cartier
• Christian Dior
• Dior
• Dior Homme
• Editorials
• Eric Ray Davidson
• Fursac
• GQ
• Gucci
• Jon Tietz
• Lucchese
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